Does the Etiology of Hemoptysis Vary Over Years?

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the distribution of etiologic factors in patients who applied to hospital due to hemoptysis and to determine whether the etiology of hemoptysis has changed over the years.
 

Methods: The records of patients who applied to hospital due to hemoptysis between November 2017 and January 2019 were prospectively evaluated. The amount of hemoptysis was classified as mild (<30 mL/day), moderate (30-100 mL/day), severe (100-600 mL/day) and massive (> 600 mL/day).hemoptysis which occured in the last month was considered as “new”, whereas hemoptysis recurring for more than 1 month was considered as “recurrent”.The etiology of haemoptysis was compared to our previously published data in 2002 and 2011. Chi-square test was used in the statistical analysis.
 

Results: Records of the 75 patients were included in the study, 31 (41.3%) were female and 44 (58.7%) were male, mean age was 55.9 (21-87). In 96% (n=72) of patients, hemoptysis was new, whereas in 4% (n=3) it was recurrent. The majority of cases were classified in the “mild” hemoptysis group(n=53, 70.7%). Moderate (n=10), severe (n=5) and massive (n=7) hemoptysis constituted the remaining 29.3%. Pneumonia (21.3% n=16) was the most common cause of hemoptysis, followed by lung cancer (20%, n=15), bronchiectasis (9.3%, n=7), and tuberculosis (6.7%, n=5). In 25 (% 33.3) cases, the etiology remained unknown. In ourstudy in 2002; The etiologies were as follows: lungcancer (34.3%), bronchiectasis (25.0%), tuberculosis (17.6%) in 2002 study, and lung cancer (40.6%), pneumonia (14.9%) and pulmonary embolism (6.9%) in 2011. In our current study, pneumonia was the most common cause of mild and massive hemoptysis; and it was diagnosed in 24.5% of mild hemoptysis and in 42.9% of massive hemoptysis cases.
 

Conclusion: In our study, the most common etiological factors for hemoptysis were pneumonia and lung cancer. The frequency of bronchiectasis and tuberculosis was found to be decreased compared to previous studies. The etiology of hemoptysis seems to change over years according to the period of the study and socioeconomic status of the society.